Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Numbers continue to roll in for the record-breaking advance ticket sales for the phenomenon that is Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Presales for the Disney and Lucasfilm project broke every IMAX record, generating more than $6.5 million in domestic ticket sales from moviegoers purchasing tickets to see the film which will open on approximately 390 IMAX screens in North America. By comparison, Imax has never previously registered more than $1 million in pre-sales on a single day. In most locations, Imax theaters were selling tickets for the first four days of the movie's run, ensuring that many more seats are yet to become available.
“The only words to describe the first day of IMAX worldwide advance ticket sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens are 'record-shattering' ," said Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX Entertainment. “We’re seeing sell-outs across the board - from Hollywood to London, to Sparks, Nevada, and everywhere in between."

He adds: "The fan reaction to the latest trailer and demand for this film in IMAX is unprecedented and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this phenomenon and share it with our partners at Disney, Lucasfilm, J.J. Abrams and the entire filmmaking team.”

When tickets went on sale Monday after the trailer debuted during Monday Night Football, demand was so high that several sites, including IMAX, Fandango and Movietickets.com, suffered outages under the pressure.

Still, Fandango has already confirmed a new record in pre-sales, selling eight times as many tickets as it did on the first day of sales for the previous record holder, the first Hunger Games film. AMC also has reported sales for The Force Awakens beat the previous record holder by more than 10 fold (IMAX ticket sales accounted for approximately 38 percent of AMC’s ticket sales gross), and the theater chain sold out more than 1,000 shows nationwide.

Force Awakens also has set a new record for MovieTickets.com, with Monday-night sales coming in three times higher than at any point in the company's 15-year history. And sales for the movie are already four times greater than advance sales for the last title in the franchise, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, during the same time period. Overall, tickets for Abrams' film represents 95 percent of all tickets sold on MovieTickets.com